Impressions of Los Angeles

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An end to a perfect day at the Santa Monica beaches.

I am writing this on the plane leaving LA after a relaxing and enjoyable 4 days stay. Our host, my uncle Jack, was the ideal host and gave us the royal treatment. He showed us the best of LA and we had a worry-free visit. Thank you!

We spent the morning playing in a park at the Hollywood sign.

Getting to know new places is one of my favorite things to do, more so when I can do it with my family. Los Angeles is one of the great world cities and LA and California are distinctive parts of American culture and could easily be a country of its own. I think we saw a lot and did many of the southern California activities, from swimming in Santa Monica to hiking in Griffith Park, to cruising through Beverly Hills, to give our family a good understanding of the city.

Below are my impressions:

• Southern California is the desert. They are also in the midst of a multi-year drought and residents have been asked to reduce their water use by 25%. I read a lot about the aqueducts that bring water to the city. Most of California’s water however, is used for agriculture and there are no reductions in that use yet. California is one of the most prolific fruit, nut and vegetable growing areas in the world, due much in part irrigation schemes. They will have to come up with ways to use water more efficiently. We felt the drought more outside the city and our hike through the Hollywood hills was quite dusty.
• There are a lot of free spirits and “riffraff” in LA. We saw many characters and scruffy, unkempt people. After being in Japan, it was a bit shocking to see the individuality and diversity of people.
• As in most cities throughout the world, if you are wealthy they are great, but if you are middle class, it is better to live in a smaller city or town in my opinion. The real estate prices were super high. Beverly Hills reminded me of our neighborhood of Dedenje in Belgrade. As soon as we crossed the line, ivy covered walls and tall palm trees gave it a peaceful look. There were many really large homes and Rodeo Drive is the main shopping district for the them. There is a lot of money in LA, but it is obviously not distributed evenly and I feel sorry for the underclass and lower middle class trying to make ends meet. We stayed in the suburb of Studio City, which is upper middle class and really didn’t see any of the poorer areas.

The view from the rooftop of CBS Studios – Studio City, California
• Sitting on top parking lot of CBS Studios, listening to the Beach Boys and watching the fire works was a very California experience. The many billboards advertising new television shows was another sign that the main industry of LA is television and movies. LA has been a driving force of spreading American culture over the world. We didn’t run into any actors or celebrities.
• We went to two beaches (Ventura and Santa Monica) and both times the water was cold. The currents off California come down from Alaska and the water does not warm up until August.
• The Mediterranean climate is the best overall weather. The bright sunny days with that extraordinary light, the cool nights, and mild, rainy winters are nice to live in. The winters are fresh and not too cold and the summer days are hot but not humid. Los Angelinos were complaining about the humidity our first couple of days there, but we didn’t feel it coming from humid Japan. I lived in Perth, Australia for two years with the same climate and loved it. The hills, pines and yellow sands and rocks reminded me of Spain and Cyprus. It is my ideal climate to live in.

The main dome of the beautifully designed Griffith Observatory.

• The Griffith Observatory is definitely worth visiting! We attended the planetarium show and it was truly inspiring. It made me want to study astronomy and to look up at the night sky. I really do love science and hope I can pass my passion to my children. There were many exhibits in the museum and despite the crowds, it was informative and one could have a good experience. I would like to go back again.

Owen above the Griffith Observatory with LA in the background.

The best thing about the observatory is its location. After looking at the exhibits, we went for a long hike up the mountain. The views over Los Angeles were spectacular. The kids and Nadia were good natured to go with Jack and I. You could really feel the drought on the walk. The trails were extremely dusty. We didn’t see much wildlife and I didn’t take time to identify any of the local trees. During our visit however, we did see many eucalypts, California palms, date palms,

• I didn’t know that Scientology started in Hollywood. We drove by the world headquarters.

Ocean’s hands are a bit smaller than George Clooney’s

• Nadia was excited to see the hand and foot prints of the movie stars at the Chinese Theatre. We went to the epicenter of movies, Hollywood Boulevard. It had the feel of Times Square with the crowds of people. The area was a bit seedy with bars, hustlers and other assorted characters.
• In experiencing the crazy amount of traffic and large highways, it gave me a feeling of sadness. To have so much time wasted and everyone in their own little isolated capsule, wanting to be somewhere else while stuck in line…Although Los Angeles has its pleasures and attractions, unless I was loaded with money, there are better places to live. The stark contrast between rich and poor is disturbing to see. I do want to come back and visit again. I really want to see some other parts of the state like Death Valley, Palm Springs, Yosemite, and small town northern California.

A street scene in Beverly Hills

Ventura California

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After a day of shopping at an outlet mall, we spent a couple of hours on Ventura Beach, located in the city of Ventura. It is located just northwest of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. We enjoyed a bit a swimming and playing on the beach. The water was quite cool and the cold breeze kept most people away so we had lots of space to run around.

Ventura is famous for its agriculture because two rivers empty to the sea nearby and it created super fertile soil. It is still today one of the biggest citrus growing regions in the world. We saw some of the migrant workers in the fields as we headed from Caramillo to Ventura. It is far enough out of LA to feel a bit like the desert west and had a much different feel than the city.

It was nice to get a taste of California surfing beach culture. Traffic also was not too bad on the way home, something that is always a concern in LA.

Arrival to Los Angeles

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Posing in front of the Universal Studios Hollywood gate

After a long flight over the Pacific, we arrived at LAX on a hot sunny Tuesday afternoon. We are staying in the San Fernando Valley suburb of Studio City in greater Los Angeles for a couple of days before heading to Bolivia. My uncle lives near Universal Studios, so in trying to stay awake we went out to dinner and soaked up some of the atmosphere. As you may have read in a previous blog post, I had horrible experience at Universal Studios Japan because of the immense crowds. It was nice to see the original theme park in Hollywood. We didn’t go inside, and at $100 per person, I don’t think it is worth it. Since Comcast bought NBCUniversal, the park has turned its finances around with 6.1 million visitors in 2013 and over 1.3 billion dollars in revenue at the Florida/California parks.

California reminds of Spain and Cyprus, a typical Mediterranean climate. The state is going through a multi-year drought and it did look very dry from the airplane. Water rationing is in full force for the people of LA, and we needed to take short showers and not rinse dishes before putting them into the dishwasher. Big fees are given to heavy water users and all consumers were asked to cut their water use by 25%. California agriculture however, uses most of the water and the “world’s garden” may need to come to terms to using so much water. Above is a photo I took tonight of the moon behind some palm trees. LA is known for its palms, but there is only 1 species of palm native to here.

We are looking forward to exploring one of the world’s great cities some more in the next few days.

School Pictures 2014-2015

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Owen – Grade 6

I received the school photos yesterday that were taken last month. I am glad schools still do this in the digital age. There is something about opening the envelope and seeing your children in a formal school photo. You notice how they change from year-to-year. Owen still looks like a boy, but is on the verge of becoming teenager. Oliver, below is such a typical “Dennis the Menace” mischievous little guy with a heart of gold.

Oliver – Grade 3

Finally, my angel-princess Ocean (below), the best of the Kralovecs, is so beautiful! I know I am biased, but I appreciate her intelligence and calm demeanor more and more everyday. Nadia and I are so fortunate to have three children. I feel so lucky!

Ocean – Grade 1

 

Father’s Day 2015

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I had a really nice day Father’s day with the kids. The only negative was Nadia was traveling today and couldn’t be there with us. I did go to the airport with her in the morning and see her off. She is chaperoning the World Scholar’s Cup team that is competing this week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

I spent father’s day exactly how I wanted to, with my children. We played basketball in the school gym and then went to Starbuck’s for a light brunch.

After a nap, the kids and I rode our bikes to Park Golf, a “mini-golf” course in Expo ’70 Park. I have never seen a course like it before. Each hole is around 40-60 meters in length. We used sticks resembling wooden drivers and the ball was similar to a croquet ball. The par 66 course is a total of almost a kilometer. The kids loved it because a variety of skill levels can enjoy the course. For serious golfers, one can work on the short putting game and for kids, they can just  whack the ball as many times as they want.

I shot a 71, Owen a 78, Oliver a “110” and Ocean a 139. To play is costs 400 yen ($3.20) for kids and a 200 yen to rent a ball. You can play for as long as you want. The course was not crowded either. It is a nice thing to do for a morning or afternoon for a family.

We finished the day off with dinner and a couple of episodes of Modern Family. The kids are being nice and pretending the pasta I prepared was delicious. It was just a super nice day – what a privilege it is to be a father!

A final thought – I miss my father – here is a photo from 2007 with all of the Kralovec men!

Growing Rice

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Our suburb of Minoh is full of rice paddies and gardens. You can find them scattered between residential and business districts. Often there are several fields together. The method of rice cultivation here requires standing water and so coming from the hills of the Minoh quasi national park down into the city, there is a system of  irrigation canals and reservoirs for capturing rainwater and storing and directing it towards the fields. The field above, as you can see in the another photo below of the field, has an reservoir right next to it. The reservoirs are a great place to see and hear wildlife. I’ve taken many photographs of ducks and herons.

There are canals everywhere, mostly on the sides of roads. In a safety conscious country like Japan, this is unexpected because they are easy to fall into on a bicycle or car.

The rice paddies are mostly tended to by older people, which there are a lot of in Japan. The government subsidizes the production of rice in the name of national culture. Small, private  farms are not economical, but it is nice to see agriculture everyday and the Japanese practicing this facet of their culture. I wonder if the younger generation will continue this practice? I also would like to know how much the government spends on this.

The last week in May and first week in June is when rice if first planted. The seedlings are started indoors and then brought out to the fields. You can see the seedlings in the photo above, they are next to the man.  Most of the planting I saw was by a machine that looked a little bigger than a riding lawnmower. The Minoh city office organized a community planting for families and they did it by hand. The fields are then flooded and farmers watch to make sure the water levels remain static. The water blocks out other weeds from outcompeting the rice.

When I get back from summer holiday and August, the rice will look as it does below. The rice is harvested in mid to late September and I hope to participate in a harvest this year. It would be interesting to see how it goes from field to the store. I have no idea.

Shirahama Beach

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Yesterday we got out of the city and headed south of Osaka, towards the end of the Kii Peninsula. Our destination was the beach resort town of Shirahama (white beach). The city of 23,000 people, is a popular summer destination for people from Kansai. I can see why because the beach was beautiful and there is lots to do in the area. We will definitely go again.

We stopped at the Tore Tore Ichiba, which is a large market. It was the best fish market I have ever seen. The Japanese know seafood and do it right, and it was amazing that the place did not smell like fish in the least bit. Other seafood markets I have been to around the world have that strong smell of fish, but this one, nothing. That tells me the it is fresh! We had an interesting “tour” of the market and the workers were quite friendly, answering our questions the best they could with limited English. We bought some fresh Red Sea Bream for tonight. I also bought a whale steak. I was surprised at the large section of whale meat and I will blog on that experience in a later post. The kids enjoyed the spectacle of the live aquariums. I recommend a visit and it was quite popular with tourists.

It was an overcast, rainy day but that did not stop us from enjoying the beach. The white sands are imported from Australia and the water was clean and cool, but not cold. In Japan, people only swim in the ocean from July to August, so outside of those times, the beaches are pretty much empty. There were three people swimming and two other families/couples on the beach. The coastline is supposed to be beautifully rugged with lots of cliffs, rocks and small beaches. We are looking forward to exploring more when we get back in August.

It is about a 2 and 1/2 hour drive from Minoh. Most of the way is four-lane expressway and the tolls are expensive (4,000 Yen one way) but it is a smooth pleasant drive.

Owen’s Band Concert

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I have been pleased with Owen learning the trumpet this year. The school has a quality instrumental music program and all students either learn a wind or string instrument or sing in the choir. Owen chose the trumpet and last week, he performed in the middle school band concert. This was his first concert with a full band and I am happy that he is getting this experience. Currently, he is in the beginning band, but next year he will move up to the concert band. I would like to thank his music teacher, Mr. Mark Elshout for his work with Owen!  We will have to take him to the home of the greatest trumpet players, New Orleans someday!

 

Finding a kanji for Kralovec

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This is another post in the series about life in Japan. The longer I am here, the more I am liking it.

Most of the homes in our neighborhood have name plates near their front door or gate. Most of them are in both English and kanji, the Chinese characters borrowed by the Japanese. We wanted to make our rented place a bit more like home, so we made our nameplate. At the local hardware store, Konan, we needed to make a design. My surname Kralovec, is Czech, and there is not a kanji associated with it. Foreign words and names are written in another Japanese script, katakana, which is used for those words that have been adapted into Japanese. Kralovec becomes クラロヴェツク- phonetically it is KU-RA-RO-V-E-KU. The “L” and “R” are not differentiated in Japanese and a source of constant confusion for newcomers and for Japanese pronouncing English words. I didn’t want to have katakana on our name plate because I wanted to fit in with others in the neighborhood and I like the stories and history behind the kanji symbols. I instead came up with kanji characters that I felt best symbolized our name.

Kral in the Czech language means “king” hence the first kanji character (pronounced oh-uu) means king. The second character means “love” (pronounced “ah ii” and the spelling our name has the word love in the middle, kraLOVEc. A portion of the love kanji has the radical, or building block heart, kokoro, in the center of the symbol. So we are the King Love family. I like to think we have a lot of love in our family. It always gets a confused look and then a big laugh when people encounter it. A good way to enter a home!

America-mura (American Village)

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Last week we ventured downtown to Shinsaibashi, one of the neighborhoods in the center of Osaka. Bashi means bridge and it is one of the famous bridges over the Nagahori River. Nadia needed to fix her iPhone and the most convenient Apple store is in this area. After getting the phone repaired, we stumbled onto the America-mura the American-themed shopping and entertainment district that is the center of popular youth culture in Osaka. There was an air of excitement and energy, especially around the triangle park (Sankaku koen). There was also a lot of interesting fashion choices, with all sorts of hairstyles and clothes with an urban edge. We walked around a bit and took the kids to Burger King. I would certainly like to go back and explore the area a bit more without the children in tow. There are some live music venues we would like to check out.

“Peace On Earth” by local artist Seitaro Kuroda (1983)

To get to America-mura, it is a side street off the main Midosuji road and subway line that runs north and south, bisecting Osaka. You can disembark at Namba or Shinsaibashi station. The area has always been an attraction for young people. I also liked the robot/human shaped light posts.

It is nice to live out in the suburbs but be very close to the inner city. America-mura is so different from Minoh and it makes for an invigorating night out.